Ivana Helsinki
Designer Paola Suhonen has managed to perfectly capture feminine energy in her designs for Ivana Helsinki. Some express values of strength and determination. Others have a more playful, flirty vibe. Perhaps this perfect embodiment of the divine feminine is a reflection of Suhonen’s mission to care for mother earth and our environment. As passionate as she is about art, she cares equally about producing carefully crafted slow fashion.
Your pieces are absolutely beautiful. I think, oftentimes, people conflate femininity in design with neutral colors and really basic pieces. Contrary to this, you’ve taken gorgeous dresses that are sometimes a bit sparkly and over-the-top and you’ve incorporated bright colors and patterns. So, what really inspires you to gravitate towards this brightness and step outside the box of tradition?
When I started Ivana Helsinki with my sister around twenty-five years ago, it started as my personal art project. Finland has quite a long history in printed textiles. Back in the 50s, they were very popular here, so I always admire that heritage. I just wanted to update it and create a fashion line for the new generation. First, the idea was just to create printed textiles, but when we started the company we realized we didn’t just want to create textiles. We wanted to create a whole fashion line. That was the start. Ever since, the colors, the prints, the kind of artistic, flirty, girlish, and Scandinavian style came about and that’s how it’s been ever since ’98. I love prints. I love colors. I think the dresses are a piece of art. They’re easy to wear. If you have just a signature dress, then you can wear it with a very basic trench coat or jean jacket, or sneakers – whatever you want to style it with. They’re easy to dress up. You can have something very special and characteristic to show your personality.
“I love prints. I love colors. I think the dresses are a work of art.”
What are some of your favorite textiles to work with?
I love cotton, but obviously, we know there are some problems with cotton. But, for printed textiles, it’s still the best base. So, we use a lot of organic cotton which is a better choice. We also use some recycled polyesters. Polyester has quite a bad reputation, but nowadays, there is a lot of knowledge, but nobody knows exactly what’s worst and what’s best. I think that’s the problem in the fashion field in general. For example, polyesters do keep their color quite well so they’re really good for long-term use. They’re more sustainable if you don’t buy in excess and that’s key. Next year, in the new collection, we’re only going to produce around fifty pieces per style which may only be around two pieces for each size. Every piece has its own value. The idea comes from the art world and the photography world. I think it's a totally revolutionary way of thinking about fashion. It’s an anti-fast fashion movement and ideology. The idea is that people really should consume less, buy less, and take care of their garments like they would a piece of art, and not just like fast fashion items.
Speaking of sustainability, is there anything you think we can do better to educate the public about the importance of being a knowledgeable consumer and consuming wisely without overconsumption? I think that’s one of the biggest problems with fast fashion. Far too often, people who have the means are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on fast fashion hauls. So, is there anything we can do to sort of combat that mindset?
We signed off of social media which is a radical move these days because brands are advertising through the medium. For me, I felt that the whole influencer culture of advertising and getting people to consume more and more felt really unfamiliar. I didn’t feel like it was my world, so that was the easiest step to take. I think everybody should take different steps. It’s a collaboration between the brands and the consumers. We should be ready to put a bit more money into the designs we really want but we should absolutely consider more carefully. I personally hate shopping online, especially if you don’t really know what you want. Shipping items out and shopping them is really not sustainable. The traffic and logistics consume quite a lot. It’s not just manufacturing the garments, so there are many ways that people should start paying attention. I think one of the key elements is volume. It’s not about the material. That’s been one of the big topics, but I feel that’s definitely not the only or main area of resolution for sustainability. It has to be lower volumes, buying what you really want, taking good care of it, and recycling or reselling it. I think the reason we are consuming is that we want to fill our lives with something. We want some sort of action. Some new things all the time. Maybe consuming could be replaced by going to the movies, listening to music, spending time with friends, reading books – whatever it is. That’s one of the reasons why ten years ago, we started 360 Ivana Helsinki World. We have a production company for films, a record label, and our own art festival.
That’s so true! Many times, there seems to be this desire to combat it with a change of textiles or maybe slowing production, but nobody ever seems to focus on society as a whole and why we are consuming so much, so I think that’s a great perspective to have. If you could choose one artist to have a conversation with – they could be a designer, a musician, a photographer – who would it be and why?
I know immediately. It would be Jack White from The White Stripes. When I heard his music I fell in love with it. His world resonated a lot and I love his style of creating concepts and storytelling. He’s a multi-talented artist, but also an entrepreneur with his own production company with strict visual codes. I love his philosophy.
As you’re moving forward and working on new collections, are there any creative risks you’d like to take?
The biggest thing is the concept of only fifty numbered pieces being released. But then, for the next collection for our 25th anniversary, there will be a big show in Paris during Paris Fashion Week in October of 2023. We were trying to plan what to do, so I had the idea to do a tour here in Finland at the retirement homes. We will go to visit them and have them be the models. That has been my long-term dream to work more with elderly people as they’re spending their lives there. It’s always thought that fashion turns its back on people as they get older, so it’s a little road trip going to different places where fashion usually doesn’t go. I’m really excited about the little trip!
I love that! It’s such an inclusive way to bring in the elderly population. They’re so often forgotten in retirement homes.
It really breaks my heart to see they’re left there almost like storage. I actually did one documentary about this older guy. He was ninety-five and had won the Olympics in Siberia. He’s a Finnish guy who won the world championship. I love the idea that whenever there are still years and life and days, we have to enjoy them and we can’t just be stored away somewhere. Life has to have meaning and every day has to be some sort of adventure.
As I end my conversation with Suhonen, I find myself reflecting on the importance of finding meaning in life through community. Spending time with friends and loved ones, going out and socializing, expanding our knowledge, practicing our beliefs, appreciating different forms of art – these are all things which help us to connect more deeply with one another and find purpose. At the end of the day, this truly is how we can combat overconsumption. Once we look within ourselves, strengthen our values, and find community, we can begin to eradicate habits of overconsumption and replace them with gratitude and appreciation.